There was a film in the early 1990's starring Sean Connery as a research scientist who discovers the cure for cancer; although cancer rates have not dropped, the number of people that die from it have declined in recent years. The cure will come eventually and the world will rejoice that this awful disease that can strike anyone at any time has been silenced. The problem is we don't fully understand the causes of cancer although there are many things in our life that can trigger it.
If someone were to ask you what cancer was, would you be able to give them a definition like the one in this article? Well, it is a disease that's characterized by a large number of cells that continue to grow and divide; they invade and destroy adjacent tissues and may even spread to other anatomical sites through a process called metastasis.
The malignant property of cancer differentiates it from benign tumors which limit their growth and do not invade or metastasize. Some benign tumors, however, are capable of becoming malignant. The disease may affect people of all ages and there is an increased risk of suffering from the more common cancers as you get older; Statistics show that the number of people cancer kills globally each year is about 13 in every one hundred. Whilst smoking, chemicals and radiation for instance, can be the cancer trigger, it is the poison from these or other sources that transform body cells and cause genetic abnormalities which grow and multiply.
To further complicate matters, it can also be the result of problems with faulty genetic codes passed down by parents which means that a person can be born with pre-cancerous cells although faults can also occur with the body's DNA replication ability. Complex relationships between carcinogens and a person's genetic makeup may explain why only some develop it after exposure to a known carcinogen.
Long term research has given a better picture of what cancer is and the study of cancer is one of the top ten diseases being researched throughout the world. Study, in general, helps us learn why one person is more susceptible to an illness than another. We all want to know more about the causes of cancer what we can do to help prevent this illness from striking.
One of the major causes surrounds food and dietary habits. Your regular diet could be putting you at long term risk from all kinds of diseases. People are generally eating too much of the wrong things such as an excess salt intake, too much saturated fat and certain dairy produce. Studies have shown that there is a connection between dairy produced calcium and prostrate cancer.
Cancer does not have any prejudice when it comes to invading a person's body as it can strike anywhere. Long term research has helped the situation and many forms can now be treated at even later stages than could be only a little while ago. For those people diagnosed with cancer, my heart goes out to them and their families; however, the constant research is paying off and the life expectancy of cancer victims is increasing all the time.
